Are Urban Farms Actually Bad for the Environment?

Glaeser’s perspective is surprisingly narrow. In general, he seems to suggest that green things are a threat to the urban environment is the same way that logging is a threat to the Brazil rain forests. Specious. As you point out he also fails to deal with rooftop farms which can co-exist, but as much to the point he fails to identify the food distribution chain as the principal catalyst for declining food quality. The issue certainly isn’t “food miles” — it’s food AGE and the types of decisions that are catalyzed by having large distribution chains (like choice of cultivar’s, use of chemicals, etc.) Lufa Farms in Montreal has make it clear that farms can reclaim lost arable land from the city in a way that does not negatively impact the city and at the same time produce a higher quality, and fresher result. Lastly, his argument further misses out on cause-effect by ignori...